When your foil kite goes down in light wind, takes on some water and is too heavy to do a directly down wind, centre line tug hot launch, should you:

Try to pivot the kite onto a wingtip and drain the water out? I have an Ozone Hyperlink that has the tiny 30mm drain hole. Would this work even though the drain hole is going to be mostly underwater? Is patience the key?

What if the wind is less than 10 knots and it's deepwater? Goodluck?! Cheers

Sorry one other comment, in light wind (7-8 knots)if i do drop my kite I also noticed that with 23m lines it takes ages for the kite to drift on the water downwind of me and get the lines tensioned so that I can start to attempt the relaunch. By this tine there is already lots of water in the kite.

Is this another advantage to having say 15m lines, in that you can mote quickly get the kite into position for relaunch?

You keep it down wind using the rear leaders or backstall bar to control. As long as it is flying even if the tip is under water it will drain. If it is only a small amount of water or wind is marginal, you can some times pull the front lines to get it to temporarily lift off and drain more. This can somethings force the velcro open so the kite drains faster. You will need more wind to drain a kite easier, which makes it important to keep kites flying at their low end.

You could always swim upwind to retension lines. I sometimes swim against a kite to relaunch it in light wind.

Is this another advantage to having say 15m lines, in that you can mote quickly get the kite into position for relaunch?

I don't think so. It was ridiculous to watch some riders on short lines on Rottnest to Leighton Race and none were in the first spots.
The short lines are for course racing as I understand.

One need to ask, what happens with the wind window on short lines? The guys here run 35m lines on 5-6m LEI kite with a hf. I recon more fun than a HL in bigger sizes...If 5m Cloud can't fly, nothing can.

Mind you, I watched Ian Young for 45 mins to relaunch his Psycho, and he's an Legend. He drifted for 500m to 1km easily. And that's something newbies (like me) are not used to. We want instant relaunch, instant everything

@Macster: Yes and no:
Yes Patience can be important, but short lines just make Drops more likely but are just helpful to wind up to get to the kite to put it into a good starting Position which should not be necessary in 99% of the relaunches.

If you drop your foil kite, while riding a foil board:

1. Don't care for the foil kite, highest priority with a foil board is ALWAYS to get the foil board, even if you have to release line tension to get it and make things worse for the kite.
2. Sit on your board and actively paddle to a position exactly windwards of your kite, keeping line tension as early as posible
3. By line tension, try to bring as much canopy into the air flow, for first no matter if it is ready to relaunch or upsite down. The more canopy catches air the more canopy can help to lift the kite and prevent further water to enter.
4. Always keep control of your wind window position, if the kite starts to drift to one site you may have to drift yourself in the same direction, doing this you keep the tips open or help to open them.
5. Make your self experience of how to untangle the kite:
There are 101 ways to untangle a foil kite even without swimming to the kite and even if you have a 360 twist in the middle, in the tipps or what ever. You may pull the kite long on one line, you may work with both front lines, etc. In some situation you have to prevent the kite to Invert within its bridle, in others Inversion can be the solution to turn the kite (20 years ago this was the only solution to turn 2 liner foils around …) The key is experience, knowing the right movement in the right secound, you have to permanently react on the situation which can change fast....
6. If kite is turned on the right side and tips are free and open but still a lot of water inside, help the kite to release the water, and don't worry, as long there are 6-7 knts of wind you may have even a half a ton of water inside with one or both tips half a meter under water, a soft kite will be able to release the water, but normal start position will be the only sensefull way to do it, while rescue with a boat will just cause damages to the sewings and more entering water in the future.
7. Pull in the trimmer by about 30-60 cm and wait, you may do a bit of a pumping movement, but maybe instead of doing it wrong it can be better to just don't pump.
8. Moment of patience
9. First you have to get the middle of the trailing edge out and free of water, if you reached this, you already made it and the rest is just about time.
10. Most important on the end: never start to early, especially if one tip is free first. If you see one tip tends to start, release trimmer tension imediately and use stearing line to keep it backstalled on the ground, now you can tension the trimmer again: So on the end one hand on the trimmer to help the heavier tip to release and one hand oversheeting the stearing line of the lighter tip.

11. Even if most of the water is out and both tips are able to start, better keep kite on the ground till ALL water is out, otherwise the flapping of the water filled starting tips will stress the canopy and sewings and can easily cause a asymetrical colapse of the kite and the next drop.

And yes, you also can fly one tip up and put the kite on the other heavy tip, but better don't try this, if you are not 100% sure you are able to do it, reaction time here to stabilize the flying tip and knowing the right wind window position is difficult. Doing it with my description is the much safer and the 99% sucessful way.

Thanks Horst, I didnt realise it is so easy to damage the canopy / stitching. Great tips, I've never been that patient and given up long before.

I foil in Port Phillip bay Melbourne and like to explore all around the place which can see me get up to 6-10 km offshore. I have been caught twice on my old inflatable kite when the wind dropped out and had to bob in the water for 30 mins waiting for it to pick back up and get going again.

So yeah, whilst I love foil kites I'm keen to learn deep water relaunching with a semi-drowned kite before I head that far into the bay again.

Thanks Horst, I didnt realise it is so easy to damage the canopy / stitching. Great tips, I've never been that patient and given up long before.

I foil in Port Phillip bay Melbourne and like to explore all around the place which can see me get up to 6-10 km offshore. I have been caught twice on my old inflatable kite when the wind dropped out and had to bob in the water for 30 mins waiting for it to pick back up and get going again.

So yeah, whilst I love foil kites I'm keen to learn deep water relaunching with a semi-drowned kite before I head that far into the bay again.

I think the best foil on the market for preventing water ingestion is the Soul. The design on the intakes keeps the water out really well. With my Sonic2s I had to be quick in my relaunch or it became too heavy with water. Never have had a problem with the Soul.

Thanks Horst, I didnt realise it is so easy to damage the canopy / stitching. Great tips, I've never been that patient and given up long before.

I foil in Port Phillip bay Melbourne and like to explore all around the place which can see me get up to 6-10 km offshore. I have been caught twice on my old inflatable kite when the wind dropped out and had to bob in the water for 30 mins waiting for it to pick back up and get going again.

So yeah, whilst I love foil kites I'm keen to learn deep water relaunching with a semi-drowned kite before I head that far into the bay again.

I think the best foil on the market for preventing water ingestion is the Soul. The design on the intakes keeps the water out really well. With my Sonic2s I had to be quick in my relaunch or it became too heavy with water. Never have had a problem with the Soul.

On the weekend I saw a soul on the water for 30 mins....zero water in it when he got to the beach.

Re the methods listed above....I have found holding the trimmer and the steering line of the tip that is free and needs to be kept down in the same grip allows one hand to be free to hold the board...so when you pull the front lines to work the leading edge, you are also pulling the one steering line to keep the free tip on the water at the same time.

Monday I was out in 6ms, some lulls to 5 and gusts to 7ms. On Hyperlink 9m UL.
I dropped my kite due to flying error, falling off and a lull.
I made mistake of letting board go. So I swam after it like a manic for a minute. Barely caught it.
Lines all Slack. Kite rolled and was inverted.
Straddled board and figured I'll just drift in as I had wind only 20degress off onshore.
Trying to emulate videos I've seen of Horst, Mono foil superman.
While I'm floating on board I regain line tension and I pull on front lines and kite rolls again and now kite us not inverted. More or less trailing edge on water. LE is on water too. Kite " on its back". I wait some more. Been on water 5+ minutes
I pull intermittent on front lines. Get canopy to lift a bit. Kite inflates, I wait. one tip comes up, but other tip has water in it. Try to keep canopy in air and slowly kite comes more inflated and finally it launches from one tip in water and a few liters drain out and it's in the air again. Lines are crossed due to kite rolling, but I can get going again and fly back to my launch and land the kite. It was almost dry already when I came in.
I was very surprised I could get it flying again and was amazed how easily it filled with air and drained.
Perhaps I was just lucky...